Apex Legends 2.0 Is A Much Better Idea Than Apex Legends 2

EA’s recent earnings call gave us an insight into the development of Apex Legends. The team at Respawn Entertainment have been consistently updating Apex season by season since its release, but with the player base dwindling, it seems like something serious needs to be done.

“The trajectory of the business of [Apex Legends] has not been headed in the direction that we have wanted for some time,” said EA CEO Andrew Wilson. However, he also said that EA remains committed to improving “quality of life, anti-cheat, and all of the things that make the core experience great, as well as the creation of new content for that community.”

Wilson believes that this will take the form of a major “Apex Legends 2.0” update, planned to go live after the new Battlefield game launches, which is expected to be before April 2026.

Is EA Taking A Hypocritical Stance On Apex Legends?

Many commentators have pointed out that this is a slightly hypocritical statement. A few months ago, in October, Wilson said in another earnings call, that “typically, what we have seen in the context of live-service driven games at scale, is the Version 2 thing has almost never been as successful as the Version 1 thing.”

And he’s right. Just look at Overwatch 2, for example. Not only did it charge players for essentially the same game a second time, but it failed to meaningfully iterate on any of the original’s gameplay mechanics. Same game, same loot boxes, same disappointment.

However, I believe Apex Legends 2.0 is a different concept to a hypothetical Apex Legends 2. I understand that the question in October’s earnings call used the wording “Apex 2.0”, but Wilson’s more detailed plan (after a rebuttal of the idea just four months ago) sounds different to what games like Overwatch have done before.

For starters, you don’t have to buy the game all over again. In fact, you never bought it in the first place. As a free game, it’s got a little more goodwill than games that cost players an upfront fee. If you’ve not spent anything to play, quitting doesn’t feel so bad when you get bored.

Apex Legends 2 would be, in my head, akin to Overwatch 2; a brand new game that basically does the same thing as the original. Apex Legends 2.0 would be more similar to Fortnite releasing Chapter 2 by taking the entire game offline for days. The rejuvenated game that reappeared enraptured players and reinvigorated the fan base. It’s this kind of meaningful update that EA is looking for in Apex Legends 2.0, backtrack or not.

“Sometime on a longer-term time horizon, there will be an even bigger, more meaningful update to that broader game experience,” Wilson explained. “An Apex 2.0, if you will. This will not be the final incarnation of Apex.”

How Can EA Make Apex Legends Great Again?

But what would Apex Legends 2.0 look like? There are a few key areas that I would want to see addressed in a new incarnation of the battle royale.

Audio Improvements

The audio in Apex Legends has improved over the past year or so, but it’s not perfect. It’s infuriating when you’re killed by a team who walked up behind you because you didn’t hear a single footstep.

Sure, maybe I should be checking my back more often, but I have very nice headphones and I’d like to be able to use them to my advantage. Perfecting the audio would remove many players’ biggest gameplay gripe with the battle royale.

More Story, More Often

I love the Apex Legends universe. From the Titanfall connections to the character relationships, one of this game’s strengths is its cast of quirky misfits and how they interact with one another.

We still get teases with voice lines and such, but remember the days when we got animated shorts? Comics? Single-player questlines? I long for those days to return.

This is unlikely to happen. Budgets have clearly been reassessed and these narrative additions clearly didn’t appeal to enough players to be worth the team’s resources any more. Therefore, I can’t see us returning to seasonal story updates, even if my heart yearns for it. But if that means the mechanical updates are better, then I’m happy to be left out.

The only option I could see is a major Titanfall addition in Apex Legends 2.0. Jack Cooper is probably a stretch, but could Kuben Blisk be added to the Legends roster along with a short animated trailer with Titanfall references galore? I could see it happening for sure, as EA tries to tickle the nostalgia glands of lapsed players.

Would it work? That’s another question entirely. Titanfall players are already annoyed that Apex is taking all of Respawn’s attention and the likelihood of a third instalment of their favourite series is therefore unlikely. For Apex players it would be a nice surprise, but unless Blisk’s ultimate ability is summoning an actual Titan, I doubt it would move mountains.

Fewer Collection Events

Again, this one seems unlikely. As long as players continue to buy out Collection Events, EA will keep making them. Events like Straight Shot or Shadowfall take a lot of resources for an LTM, but they’re far more exciting than the opportunity to purchase new cosmetics.

I would take one new LTM a year instead of the current Collection Event timetable, but realistically, to increase player retention, these should be happening every season or two. That puts a lot of work on the developers, but if EA could use some of those $7 billion profits to supplement the team with additional hands, the game – and the company’s bottom line – would be far better in the long run.

Hopefully this is what Wilson was talking about when he mentioned the “creation of new content”, not just another rerun of the Final Fantasy crossover.

New Legends

The cadence of adding new Legends has slowed in recent seasons. Balancing a constantly expanding roster is a task so tricky I can’t comprehend it, but there’s nothing more exciting than a season with an entirely new character joining the fray.

However, I also think that more could be done with said releases. Alter launched with game-changing abilities, and yet hardly sees play at any level of the game. Did she need to launch stronger? I doubt it. But a narrative hook – one of those aforementioned animated shorts – and potentially an in-game event to celebrate her arrival would have been a klaxon to draw players in, to try her out, and to get a feeling for how she changes the game.

Apex Legends is being constantly updated and iterated, and personally I think most of the updates are positive. The developers are taking big swings at keeping the game fresh, and for someone with four-figure hours, I enjoy tackling each new season with a new approach.

But I think these changes could be better signposted. Players read the patch notes but most don’t try the game for themselves – the numbers don’t lie. If every update was heralded with more in-game events and narrative hooks, all of which point you specifically towards the new changes, the community would be more receptive towards them. Or at least willing to try.

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